Let the Fight Begin
by The Brand
Summary: The land has been wasted, you are Nick. Win the Fight and win your place in legend.


**By: The Brand**

**Let the Fight Begin**

Ch. 1 The Infinitesimal Struggle

The rope burned his ankles as he twirled in the air and the blood drained to his head. Nick looked down and saw the ground above him. He looked below him and saw the rust falling from the moorings his rope was attached to, to mix with the open cuts in his legs. Nick twisted his body into a perfect crunch and pulled himself down as quick as lightning, only to hear a crack in the cast-iron of the moorings. Looking around, he took stock of the dirty, gray floors, the moldy, green ceiling, and the flaky paint that crowned the whitewashed walls. "What am I doing here!" he screamed. A woman walked into the room, flipped a switch, and walked out. Nick fell back into sleep.

Nick woke up with a pounding in his head and an ache for vengeance. He looked around, saw the woman and asked her, "Why am I here?"

She looked him in the eyes and said, "Because you are the Gatekeeper". Without another word, she turned around and pressed the button again. This time Nick fell from the ceiling as the sleep took him.

Raising his head, Nick surveyed the room and immediately saw that there was one significant change in the room. The one-itsy bitsy change was a skeleton hanging from his rope. Nick rose to his feet and went to the door. He pushed some buttons into a keypad and watched as the door slid open. He walked out into a hallway and saw a sign that read: CARGO EMPORIUM/ If We Can't Lift it than We Know You Can't; as he walked down the hallway, the air became thicker. He stopped at the next set of doors and practically fell through as the doors slipped apart. The woman on the other side said, "My name is Nancy, you're in a restricted area, and you need to wear these. Welcome to the Fight."

Nick quickly dressed in his robes and walked with Nancy back to his room. She explained, "You have been picked, and taken off of the streets to fight."

" I don't remember anything, how long have I been here? Why am I here?" Nick glanced around as he talked and saw the state of disrepair present in the room. "Where exactly IS here, and um…. How often do y'all hire a cleaning crew?"

"Silence!", she shouted as she slapped him across the face. "You are here for the Fight, if you win you won't be starving like the billions of Americans outside those walls. Look." She threw open the window and pointed at the hungered, depraved, ghoulish faces on the other side of the window. Murmured whispers snuck through the glass to hang in the room as the poor souls pressed their rotten hands to the glass and pushed the window with all the strength of babies. Nick shuddered and quickly closed the blinds to escape the nightmarish gazes.

"I… never knew it was this bad… the reports always said that help was coming" Nick stuttered out, "I can't believe it has gotten this bad, what must we do?" Nancy then told Nick about the end of the world with a matter-of-fact monotone. The world ended on December 22, 2012, with nuclear bombs falling all across the world. As the radiation spread, the American people fired up their starships and escaped to the moon. They came back 500 years later. The Fight became the most nationally watched television show of the human race 100 years later. Nancy then told Nick that she was the Assistant Manager of the Fight and she had been assigned specifically to Nick's room because of his talents.

"You are the sole hope for the human race, if you can beat Chinos at his own game, you will win all". I believe that you can save all of us, and maybe I might give you a little treat…", she stroked his chin as she walked around him; as the gas spread within his lungs and she walked around again she ended, "… if you live…".

Ch. 2 To Go On

JOLT!!! My heart thumped as I woke up. I looked around me and saw the same grimy room that I had been stuck in for the last 5 days. I picked up a stick I found and ran down the hallway. I stopped in front of the sign and saw a message on the side. It said: Nick, you have to show us how good you are; as Gatekeeper it's your job to guard the Package. Your Package is the man Harris Winterfield. He is 5'9", wearing a bowler hat, in the midst of Rockefeller Center. You best get out of there before the radiation gets too high. Best of luck in facing Two-Jawed Joe. –Nancy. I picked up my stick and continued down the hallway.

I passed through the door and into a domed arena. I immediately saw it as the remnant of the U.S.A. Jet Space Station used to launch our starships. It must have become the new Fight home. Passing through I saw several gunky skeletons decorating the ground. I walked a whiles until I came out on 42nd Street. I continued walking until I passed the Empire State Building, and using that as my compass, I found my way to Rockefeller Center. There were several places I could have escaped, but fear kept me in place, fear of retribution, however; far stronger that that was my pride. Pride burning in my chest, and by God I was going to follow my destiny.

I practically flew to Rockefeller Center where I quickly found Harris. "It looks like it is time to fight", I cleverly punned as I turned around to face the camera crews.

The anchorman stepped up to the stage and proclaimed the beginning of Fight, "It is time once again for the fine ladies and gentlemen of the world to watch Fight in the bomb-blasted city of New York. Today's combatants are our good little friend Two-Jawed Joe and the rookie Nick Dross, but don't let his name fool you, this guy is a tiger; ya know if they still existed". "My name is Jack Tempar and I'll be laying out the lines blow-by-blow".

"Let the fight begin!" The anchorman sat down to take his place among the crowd.

I grabbed Harris and moved to the center of the field. There I took a compulsion rifle, several rounds, and a .10 mm pistol and strapped them onto my back. "So where is he?" I asked Harris.

"Right behind you", he said. I turned around and saw a man in a dark-blue jumpsuit with a .338 sniper rifle leveled at my head. I jumped towards him, which saved my life by making his shot miss my head by a fraction and hit my shoulder instead. I rolled out of my jump and came up with blood streaming out of my shoulder. I grappled him to the ground and punched him in the head. He grabbed me around the waist and threw me over his shoulder. I fell on the ground, twisted around, grabbed my compulsion rifle and stuck it in his gut. "Hasta la vista", I whispered as I pulled the trigger.

Joe fell onto the ground with a stump for a leg and blood gushing out in bucket loads. As the red wave spread across the floor, I felt it stain my soul, and even as the crowd cheered I felt sick to the stomach.

I leveled my rifle and pistol at the crowd and called, "Why do you laugh? I just killed a man and you think it is funny! To hell with all of you!" As I said these words, a group of robots came running at me to tackle me to the ground. The world spun as my head met concrete. I struggled and even managed to shoot one of the robots with my rifle but I was inevitably dragged down. I was stuck in the back of a truck and driven back to my lonely room. I fell into a depression so deep that nothing in the world could reach me.

The waves of pain lapsed against my heart as I finally realized where I was and what I had done.

I had lost my wife, my kids, and my baby boy to the foul mechanism of political controllers. It was all gone.

Ch. 3 When Does It End

I lived in my depression for many weeks, and the only person who seemed to care was Nancy. It all came to a head in June. "Nick, you rot sucking, radiation-loving, little excuse for a Gatekeeper. What is wrong with you? You are just one match away from facing Chinos; all you have left is Rierces and then you're through. I'm sorry, but you need to wake up".

"I… just can't Nancy, it's too much. Don't you realize that I lost everything?" I looked up to see her standing above me with pleading eyes and pleading hands.

"I don't care, I just know I need my champion and by God I will have him. Starting now, you cannot have anything bothering you, and that includes you. Come on, I want to show you something".

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"You'll see", she replied, "now shut up". We walked down the hallway and out into the "courtyard" I had found in my first match. The skeletons still decorated this ghastly place, along with the slide, the high-vaulted ceilings, the dusty motes of light, and the many pools of radiation giving off an eerie green light. "You have fought 8 matches since you have been here and have done exceptionally well for a rookie." She looked at me and made a peculiar sign by placing her thumb and ring finger together and raising her two middle fingers to her right temple. "It's important that you keep your head in the game if you're gonna take on Rierces. She is a mystery. She came in here 5 years ago to this very spot and it is because of her that all of these skeletons are here." She prodded one of the skeletons in the ribs. I looked on in awe as I counted 42 skeletons scattered throughout the chamber. Nancy continued, "Using just a metal beam she found lying on the ground, she killed all of her guards and escaped through that skylight up above. We leave the guards' remains as a tribute to her daring."

"How did she manage to get up there?" I asked.

"You see those bodies piled in the corner over there?", I looked and saw a particularly big pile of skeletons placed up against the wall. "She stacked those bodies up and jumped ten feet up to that gray ledge, busted the window and jumped out". She walked up to me and kicked me in the guts; adrenaline flooded through me and I tried to tackle here, she jumped out of the way and kicked me again, bring me to my knees. I spun on her and lashed out and she jumped clear out of my reach.

"Now tell me how you will take Rierces down if you can't even take me down, how do you expect to take her down?!" I lay on the ground with my face in the dirt and looked up at her. With a sudden move I slashed my legs through the air to sweep her feet out from under her. I then sat on the small of her back and pinned her to the ground. Her words came out raggedly as she said, "I… guess we have something… to work with…", as she lay breathing below me, her heartbeat matching mine.

Suddenly, she twisted me off of her and used her legs to throw me over her face and into a patch of stones headfirst.

"Now clean yourself up, you have a match tomorrow". She walked away as I spit blood on the floor. The last rays of sunlight fells on the drops of blood and made it glow as red as rubies.

"Not a bad omen…", I muttered sarcastically as I jumped up and walked away.

Ch. 4 Rierces

I saw through the murky mist into a room with blood-red tiles, blood-red ceiling, even blood-red wallpaper. A woman stat in the middle of the room eating. She wore a fiery-red dress which dazzled the eyes, and the chunk of meat she held in her hands glistened with blood. She looked at me and said, "The blood will rise and only you can stop it Nick… Nick… Nickckkk!"

I fell out of bed as Rierces' voice turned into Nancy's. "What?", I groaned as I lay half-asleep on the tiles. I had gotten a bed since my first fight and it was from being sprawled acoss it to laying on the floor that I now looked up at Nancy from. "What do you want?"

"It is time to go, the Fight is waiting". I put on my jumpsuit and followed her out. "Ok Nick, it is time to suit you up with your weapons; you have a choice between your compulsion rifle or this new rifle we just developed that we're not suit what it does." I chose the new rifle just for the sense of adventure, but kept my trusty old .10mm pistol.

A little while later, we arrived at our destination. I looked up, up, up and saw the majestic spire that still crowned the Empire State Building. "Looks like today is going to be an interesting day", I remarked.

"You'll see just how interesting it is when we get up there." We climbed up to the very top and met our entourage of various spectators. I saw the woman from my dreams dressed in the exact same dress except that her eyes were sky-blue, and not fire-red.

"Now ladies and gentlemen, lets have a clean fight for the Fight and have fun…. If ya can." "Let the Fight begin!," Jack finished off as a harness came down on top of me and clamped onto my body.

Suddenly, I was airborne, facing off against one of my greatest enemies. I soared through the sky with my new harness directed by though. I glanced around and saw the edge of Rierces' skirt as she flew around the side of the building. I followed cautiously and by some freak of nature did not see her antigrav land mine.

The explosion blew me down to the concrete on top of the building where I bounced across the roof a couple of times. I skidded to a stop at the ledge with my cut up face hanging over the edge. The pain hit me, but I shook it off.

"We don't have to fight you know," Rierces said. She had her hands on the edge with her head on her hands, floating in the air just watching me. "They put us up here to die, look around you, they're all gone." I looked around and saw they she was right. All that was left were the cameras, swiveling on their tripods to record the action.

"Ya know something? When you've just woken up about 2 years ago, you never really do realize what you've lost. Before today I was depressed for weeks on end and all because of someone accidentally waking me up from my cryogenic sleep. I was frozen in space and unfrozen 500 years later when we landed for only 5 minutes. It was chaos. I woke up in the streets just 2 years ago when someone knocked the power out of the building I was in and all the pods came undone. I woke up and I came alive. I cold have just slept through the noises and not had to do this STUPID, but I didn't, and I've profited. And now you're telling me that the Fight is just going to leave us up here to die?"

"Yes, for the money, she said,"…but…I know a way out". "I know for a fact that they ringed the perimeter with land mines and are going to blow the building in about a minute… WHAT is that!" She pointed at my rifle. "Do you know what that is? It's the A24 Z-Rifle that shoots black hole pockets; I've only heard of this as legend, I didn't think it actually existed. Give it to me". I looked her in the eyes and just saw curiosity and reluctantly handed it to her as we flew into the sky.

"Okay, it looks like we need to shoot the land mines floating around, so did you get it working?" She nodded and handed me back the gun. I looked, shot, and then spun away as all hell broke loose.

The world spun as I flew backwards off the roof. At the last minute I pulled up to avoid hitting the sidewalk. "Rierces! Where are you?" I checked myself for injuries as I looked around. She appeared out of the blue above me, put a finger to her lips, and pointed at Nancy walking down the streets. "So how's everything going," I casually say in my silkiest voice as she reaches me.

"Shut up…", she said as her punch sent me to sleep.

Ch 5. The Final Fight

I woke up in my bed with a pounding headache. I looked around and saw a phone lying on the end of the bed. I picked it up and found a note at the bottom: Hide this, call the contact-Rierces. I quickly slid the card into the incinerator, picked up the phone and called the contact.

"Hello?", I asked.

"Who is this?", a gravelly male voice answered.

"Nick…um… Rierces told me to call this. Who are you?"

"We are the Resistance, I know who you are, Agent R did her job. You must find her and give her this message: The eagle is ready, I repeat, the eagle is ready. It is very important. Good-bye". The phone hung up.

I quickly slid the phone into my pocked right before Nancy walked in the door.

"Nick, it's time to fight Chinos. Come." I walked out the door with her, noticing that her anger from the previous day was gone, as we walked down the hallway, through a courtyard, and out through the front door. We crossed through the many different streets of New York to find ourselves on the Brooklyn Bridge. The once famous bridge stretched for a long ways on both sides of the bank and we walked to the very middle of it.

There stood a mocker of humans, descending into a specially constructed pit resting between the steel girders on either side of the bridge. I thought I spied the shadow of a door down below. "Nick, this is the Finale Pit, which means that you must hit Chinos into the pit, or he hits you of. Either way, you get to see hunger close-up. The people down there are the hungriest ones in the city, the lowest of the low, so they will tear you apart. Don't try anything. Go."

"What? No good-bye kiss?" I teased. She turned away as if pissed, but I could see her blush even in the early morning light. Feeling a manly light go on inside of me, I walked onto the stage. I looked to the other side and saw an OLD man standing there. "Where is Chinos?", I called to him. He just stood there and looked at me out from underneath a white mask.

Opening his mouth, he yelled through the mask in a muffled, barky, voice, "I am him, you hate him, you will die. Him will not let you live. Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" He charged me, grabbed me by the shoulders and dived off the platform. We fell through the air, kicking and punching each other and for the longest time his strength outlasted mine. In a matter of 2 minutes we slammed into the bottom of the pit, where the people broke our fall.

My head bounced as my whole body flip-flopped into a group of the hunger people. The Hungries (their new nickname) leaned down for a look at me. I looked up and saw actual intelligence in one of their eyes, along with desperation. "You're not going to eat me, are you?"

"No friend, Agent R said that you are essential to our cause". He reached down and helped me to my feet. "Take these clothes". I accepted the Hunger clothes and put them on.

"Where is Chinos?" I asked.

"He has escaped, like always. He lures our allies in and goes to the to as the winner again. You are now officially dead. Do you see that meat right there?" He pointed and I saw a vaguely humanoid shape lying at the far side of the pit. "That is 'you', so you are now dead"'. We moved down a tunnel to rough ladder leading up to that door I had seen. The door went down a tunnel sloping back up to the ground. "The Fight only made this tunnel in case we did not 'eat' the victims to give them a chance to escape. Chinos is the only one 'strong' enough to escape us 'eating' him. Here we are"'.

We walked out at Chinos' end to find him standing there. The crowds has disappeared over the last twenty minutes and now only Chinos was standing there.

Chinos said, "Look around you, what do you see?" I looked around and told him I saw the cloudy sky, the murky water, and the many hungry faces at both ends of the bridge held back by police squads. "Now what did you use to see?" So I told him about the pride I used to feel as the happy people of New York, walked, biked, and drove over the Brooklyn Bridge. The water and steel used to sparkle in the light of the midday sun. The birds used to fly through the sky; the lonely eagle and the playful sparrows both getting along. I told him about the couples that used to picnic out along the banks of the river. I told him of the joy I used to feel with my family and broke down as I told him the story about my daughter's birthday.

"Don't you want that life back?"

"Yes I would do anything to get it back".

"Well then come with us; we have a plan to end the Fight forever!" I went with their group to a dark, dang building deep underground. I am now lying in a bed, nursing my bruised head (happy it was not a hard fall) and just waiting for sleep. I don't know what will happen I the next couple of day, let alone weeks, but I know I will do anything to have that life again that Chinos made me paint. I am ready.

Ch. 6 Next

I woke up to see narrow streaks of sunlight just brightening the day outside. I strode to the window to look out and see a bright-blue spring day projection. I walked to my door, opening it, and walked out into the largest room I have ever seen. An inkling drifted to the forefront of my brain to take root. I saw this place as a nuclear fallout shelter. There was a back up plan is the starships had failed, to take a mass elevator far underground and use the rocket fire tunnels as fallout shelters if the bombs dropped. They were well-equipped to continue society as we had it aboveground. They also had futuristic rooms that were invented just to help society/train astronauts for the moon. When the bombs actually dropped, we only escaped thanks to quick thinking and quicker reactions. So all over the country, Americans got to see their back up plan fail miserably and realized that we even HAD a back up plan when the tunnels filled with radiation and showed up on the Geiger-counter charts just be thankful that the starships worked.

When I awoke, I had seen old news bulletins about the shelters in my second fight, so I only knew that they still existed.

I realized all of this as I sat looking around the massive, domed hall. Very few people had ever even knows these shelters existed before the tunnels were filled with the poisonous radiation, and even 600 years afterward, I doubted that anyone had ever even thought about checking them out.

During this time, I lapsed into a melancholy trance so I was understandably startled when a man came up behind me and tapped me on the shoulders.

"Sir, you do realize that you have been gawking at the ceiling for the last 5 minutes right? Are you alright?" I quickly dropped my gaze to the floor and apologized. I asked the man where I could find Chinos. "He went back to the Fight of course. It pays to have the top most players out of the game as your agents. The Fight keeps whoever survives, even on ties like your tie with Rierces. It has been a very fruitful year. You can meet our leader though if you want. He just finished his breakfast. If he is busy though, you can meet Salem, she shouldn't be too busy".

"I'll wait," I said. I sat down at the table and ate some eggs, cheese, and bacon. I sat back and waited. And waiteddd. And waiteddddddd. Evenutally, someone came to stand in front of me to finally wake me up.

"Sir, Juro will see you now".

I stood up and followed the man out of the domed room. He went up a long chain of staircases and finally came into a small study. Sparsely furnished chairs cluttered the place, and red wallpaper complimented the redwood desk. A thin man in a purple suit stood up to greet me.

"Sir, you find yourself in the home of one Juro Lockhammer, me. I must say it is good to finally meet the legendary Nick Dross". He came over to me to shake my hand and sat me down in the seat next to him. "You know, I have spent long, tireless hours in this study trying to figure out the secrets of the Fight. I have been looking for such a long time for a way into the heart of the Fight and then their greatest asset walks right into my arms. I must tell you sir, that you have a way with the Lady. The Grand Lady that watches us all and strives to bring us to sleep for eternity in her gentle loving arms. Only you seem to be able to resist her lures time and time again. That will make you useful in the final fight."

He paced around my chair, inspecting me from different angles. He checked especially behind my right ear and nodded as if satisfied with something. "To know how to defeat your enemy, then you need to know a little about your enemy. It all started 100 years ago when us Americans came back to the Earth and restored technology to the world. The Fight began as a secret government chapter that was the backbone of the government. The government was running out of money, so they turned to the Fight for help. FIGHT initially stood for Freedom Force Introduction to "Grassing" Hostile Troops, a military branch specifically made to fight or "grass" (plant the troops in the their graves) enemy troops. The 2nd F was taken out for simpler purposes, but anyways it was able to back up the government by gaining influence with "bum fights". At first it picked up just the homeless, the sick, the deprived; just to test them in combat. As their popularity spread, their net spread ever so wider to take anyone off the streets. The government finally noticed, so push comes to shove and the Fight uses its growing influence to gut the government; only to take its place. Now the Fight controls everything, from the economy, to television, to even relationships. It has taken over everything!"

Juro became agitated and started spasming with a strange twitch in his left eye. I stood up and asked, "So what can we do about this monster? I don't know what you have heard about me, but I am only a man and I can die just as easily as you. So put that into your grand plan and see what happens. I won't be used". I stood up and looked him in the eye, "I swear now that if I find anything in your plan that harms innocents, or if you are using me for your own gain, I will come back here and gut you from head to toe. Got that compadre?"

The dark tone left my voice as I sat down and Juro looked at me with newfound respect. He said, "We have noticed so far that the fight relies heavily on its public image. It doesn't matter even if we did defeat it somehow with arms. The public absolutely LOVES the Fight. We have to destroy its public image if we want to wake up the public. That's where this little puppy comes in." He picked up a pen and handed it to me. "This is the Mark 45-Z Lazetag. With it, we have to means to cut of the head of the snake. We are going after Steven Fallfault, the current leader. The Fight has always been controlled by one person. It was started by one person. Even their Vice Leader Nancy has almost no power. If we can take out the head, they have no time for a major power shift, and we have measures in place to take out the rest. In two weeks time we strike. Now we come to why we need you. We need a certain sacrifice from you. We have worked the odds and you may just have to die. The Fight will want you back and we need your silence. I am the only one who knows the full extent of the Resistance resources, and I have my study with all my notes linked to a datachip in my forebrain. The Fight will not extract my information if they capture me because I will be carrying a cyanide capsule in my mouth. Even if I live, I will not break under torture and I will code my datachip to put my daughter Salem in charge".

He continued, "She will have my data and carry on our work. Take me at my word Nick, this could very well be a suicide mission. You and me are going in with a small group into the heart of the enemy, The Fight Capitol. Two weeks to live, the time is yours to spend how you will".

I stood up calmly, faced him calmly, and punched him in the jaw. "No matter what you say, I do NOT want you to even THINK that I won't go. I know this is important, and it may be a suicide mission but I am no coward. The Fight stole everything I had left! My honory, my courage, even my dignity… I have nothing less. They grinded the loss of my family into those wounds. I will fight with y'all and we will win. Even if it means my death…", I finished.

"Looks like we have a real fight on our hands," Juro muttered as I stalked out of the room. I was going to take my 2 weeks and rock this shelter and this city as they have never been rocked before.

Ch. 7 Rock On

I walked out of Juro's study in a huff but quickly calmed down when I realized where I was. I was out of the Fight! No more killing and no more knowing when I would die. I was living in a safe place with comrades all around me. Nothing could attack me in here… I had finally found my peace. I could see myself with another family in here, a peaceful community, friendly neighbors… ah the good life (if still a false one). I also saw what I would have to go through to reach this. An ocean of bitter tears swam before my eyes, and I was the only one who could swim through it to make my dream real for at least the people around me. I did not know if I would surface out of the bitterness to find the sweet.

"Excuse me". I said absently as I bumped into an old man in front of me. I realized I had slowly drifted back to the cafeteria room and sat down at my table again. I looked around again and saw an exotic beauty sitting at another table. She had the body of a dancer and the eyes of a leopard. She stood up and walked over to me. "Hi there I said".

"How are you sir? I don't mean to encroach, but are you the famous Nick Dross, the Gatekeeper?"

"I am…", I said suspiciously. "How did you know about Gatekeepers?" I knew that the Fight only told the public the Fighters names and not the actual terms like Packages and Gatekeepers

"My father is Juro, and I I am Salem. So obviously anything he knows I know." She placed her hands on her hips and looked at me with a knowing gaze. "He told me to look after you and show you the time of your life". She winked and said, "come on, let's go have some fun." She took me down a long tunnel and into a dark space. Along the way I could feel her touching my muscles as she guided me because she INSISTED that she guide me. Her hands smoothed the knotted balls of tension out of my muscles as we walked so I was feeling quite relaxed when we walked out onto a basketball court.

Suddenly, Salem turned me around and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. I looked at her stunned. "Sorry Gatekeeper, but your on your own now, and I just couldn't leave you without a good bye kiss, it's my customs". She winked at me and the door slammed shut while I stood there with a bloated head.

Bright lights flooded the room suddenly as I saw a team clutching long wooden rods charging right at me. One jumped a straight 10 feet in the air and came plummeting down to squash me. His eyes glazed over in anger, and I could see the sweat on his face as I passed out.

Ch. 8 Gravityball

"Well mate, looks like you had quite a scare". I looked up with bleary eyes and saw a player with the Australian accent. He and his buddies each stood 6'4" with muscle just packed on like slabs of meat. I looked closer and saw that the top parts actually were meat slabs. The Australian, the same one that almost squished me, looked down and said, "I hope you enjoyed our little stunt; we saw Little S with you out in the corridor with our camera", he finished with a wink. "I'm Big G, so meet Stonehead, Slammer, Slim Jim, Tubby T, and Sasquatch". He pointed at each member of the team as he spoke.

"We're under orders to show you a good time from Juro, so we got the boys together to play a 6 vs. 6 game. Here's your team," he pointed at another group of men, "meet Slade, Joe, Dunk, Cap, and Butterball". I was overwhelmed with all of this sudden information so I looked at Big G and asked, "Who's the Captain?".

With a laugh, he clapped me on the back and said, "Gets straight to the point guys, I like this one. Well normally Little Sub but she wanted you to be Captain for today. Okay, rules: Number 1. No hitting in the face or below the belt. Number 2. No other rules; get the ball any way you can." He pointed at a scoreboard. "We managed to talk Juro into fixing this place a couple of years ago and since then the sport has just taken off. The point of the game is simple; to get the ball into the other team's net. There's a catch though, the gravity; thus the name Gravityball".

"What does gravity have to do with this? It must have something to do with the astronauts, yes?"

He looked at me strangely and said, "I don't know what an astronaut is, but this room has special gravity controls that with a little practice we managed to get working. Apparently this room can make gravity flow straight down, sideways, upside-down, or any direction really. Not only that, but we can create up to six different flows of gravity at once, so you're both solving a maze and playing against the other team. We just hit the random switch or let someone outside of the game make the maze and the game starts. The ball has it's own gravity field to make it stay in the center, so the first team to get there has the upper-hand". He took a deep breath and finished, "You have 3 minutes to get to your end, and then 2 minutes to work out your strategy. Now lets play!"

My team turned around and ran to the far end of the room. I followed and we hunkered down to talk battle strategy. "So we should split up from left to right in 3 teams of 2 and test the flow. That sound good to all of you?" Cap told me that he was 2nd in charge and that usually Big G's team spread out in a semi-circle and sent one person down each flow. I decided that my team could then just test five.

Slade said, "Something Big G forgot to tell you Nick is that the Captain stays behind as goalie. You'll be getting the full force of their attack". I silent-gulped and looked at my scrawny muscles compared to Big G's team.

Dunk spoke up and told us of a story where Big G's team carried Salem out of the goal and just threw her into a water-slide version involving gravity. I asked him what happened and he said that eventually she just fell unconscious until the time ran out.

A bell rang out just as he finished. Small pieces of metal floated up into each flow to help each person maneuver if needed. My team looked at me and said, "Good luck sir", and then stepped out into the flow. Dunk flew right, Cap left, Joe diagonally right, Slade just walked forward, and Butterball also just walked forward. I looked at the unexplored flow in front of me and wondered where it would go. Stonehead's flow went right into the ball and he threw it sideways to go up to Tubby T. Tubby T dropped the ball down into a rightward flow to land square in Slim Jim's hand and he then dove into a normal gravity flow to collide with Slade. The two teams ran/swam like athletes to scrabble for the ball until Sasquatch faked a pass to Stonehead and instead hit Dunk in the head to land in his hand again. I dove out to tackle him and he pushed me into an up flow. I screamed out as my back hit the ceiling (thanks to my sudden speed boost) and Sasquatch scored. The game replayed and this time dunk floated down and kicked the ball behind Big G. Stonehead tried to score on me, but in desperation, I latched onto his legs and the ball flew into Joe's hands for a quick shot into Big G's net. Big G charged 3 times and scored on me. Dunk punched Stonehead and suddenly the whole team was fighting.

I shouted out, "Stop" and suddenly everybody charged me. I pulled myself thorough the gravity flows; tripped on a metal piece, and to this day I don't know how the ball went in. Dunk and Joe both scored one more time, and the time limit finally ran out.

I looked around at my team and saw the brotherhood we now shared even if I was a rookie. I walked up to them and gave each of them a solid handshake.

Big G walked up to me, spit in his hand, and shook mine, "It's been an honor to play with the best Fight champion ever".

"Thanks". I shook his hand and we walked out the door.

Ch. 9 Salem

I split from Big G and his teams to go find Salem. I walked out the door and took a right at the next door to find ivory-colored columns supporting a dusty ceiling. Even as the dust rained down, sunlight filtered through the hold that went all the way through the shelter to the ground above to mingle as yet another sign of destruction from the war long ago. I gawked at the twisted steel beams that supported the floors above; somehow keeping the whole thing from collapsing.

As I stood there, staring like an idiot, I heard a footstep behind me. I turned around but no one was there. I stepped off to the side, behind a column to see if anyone was coming into the room, but no one did. I walked further into the room to find a gazebo just sitting among the stone.

The paint was peeling off and cracked wooden boards made up the floor, but it had a certain majestic charm about it.

As I was looking at the gazebo, I remembered an advertisement for the fallout shelters circulated among the higher elites to get the project approved. They had gravity fields, indoor parks, and all the other modern conveniences for a successful life underground. That explained the park, but what explained the hole?

My pondering thoughts walked away with me, so I was still gazing quietly at the ceiling when I heard another footstep directly behind me. I spun around but no one was there. I took a step and arms wound around my legs from behind. I fell down and landed on my injured ribs. I twisted around and kicked out at my assailant. She caught my foot, jumped over it and landed on my waist. She pinned my arms behind my back and took off her leaf mask with a wicked grin on her face speaking to me of all-knowing things. Omniscience is not always bad.

The girl looked down at me and with a twist of her head I recognized her. Her milky white skin reminded me of moonlight on water in the ancient myth of a desert mirage. Salem said, "This is another part of my culture, The Hunt of the Lioness to catch her prey".

I coughed out, "Glad… to…oblige". She looked down at me fondly and stroked my hair. I gazed up into her chocolate-green eyes and saw an emotion there I could not identify. I myself knew that I would do anything for this crazy huntress.

The sun started to set to make a dusty twilight, and the setting sun gathered me together with my newfound love still sitting on my chest.

On impulse, I reached up and dragged Salem down to me in a massive bear hug. I put my lips just below her mouth and raised it up to kiss her on her nose, teasing her. Salem drew back and looked into my eyes to see the love falling out in streams. Her eyes reflected mine.

She came back down and kissed me passionately. I said, "In my culture, when you love someone, you marry them. Will you marry me?"

She stood up and looked down at me with ice in her eyes. She explained, "My father must agree, and until then I cannot marry you. I will be your girlfriend though…"

She winked and came back down to give me another kiss. The sun shed its last marvelous ray to be replaced by a mystic night.

In the morning, I looked around the garden and saw Salem lying asleep in the gazebo. I went over to her and drew a blanket around her shoulders. The rising sun greeted us. I lay down next to Salem and went back to sleep with a smile on my face.

Ch. 10 Battle Plans

I woke up and found Salem gone. Feeling stupid, I quickly dressed myself and wondered out into the cafeteria hall. An attendant came over to me and tapped me on the shoulder.

"Juro would like to speak to you sir". I followed him up to Juro's study and noticed a drastic change in the study. There was a gigantic hold in the wall. I saw Juro sitting in his chair, wearing a golden robe, looking like an old man.

"What happened?" I asked. He told me that the fight had started underground bombing in an effort to turn up my body. A mole among the Hungries had rooted me out, by saying that I was not eaten, but he was not sure if I was dead. The Fight thought I had fallen into the river and drifted into the mud far below. This told me that we were near the river, but that was all I could see.

Juro spoke, "They will eventually find us, and so our plans have been moved forward to tomorrow. I'm just lucky that it was only my wall that collapsed, and thank goodness it is so old that it was not needed to support the outside structure. I am having a Council of War in my study in 1 minute. You have to attend because we have a lot to discuss. Please take a seat".

I sat down and asked him about Salem. He told me that he loved her beyond anything else and her mother had been a person that he would have died for. He began to tell me about her childhood in the wastes of North Africa, living among the tribes; before they escaped to New York City, and how they had planned to move to the South, down to Alabama. He said that their plans had fallen apart when the Fight killed his wife. While he was talking people were filing in, so he stopped as soon as the last person came in.

When we were all assembled, I stood up and addressed everybody, "I know that I have only been here for 2 days but I already consider each of you my brothers and sisters, so I want you to know that you can count on me in the upcoming fight". I sat back down after a round of approving gazes.

Juro then officially started the meeting. He started with, "Our priorities have changed. We not only need to take out the head and destroy the Fight's public image but we must also gun down their bombers. Hmm, we'll call them Flighters. We have charges that we can place on the 2 Flighters, so we need volunteers to assault each. That is where the boys that play Gravityball come in. Come on in boys." Big G and salem walked in with their teams.

A man stood up and said, "How can you justify mere kids taking out heaving armed Fight bombers?

Juro looked at him and calmly said, "Trent, I know that you and I don't always see eye to eye on things, but the kids have proven themselves countless times on raiding missions and they are the best we have. So calm down. They know the risks and they are willing to take it and I know you're not going to take away free will, are you?  
Trent sat back down among his friends, each of them giving Juro an evil stare. Juro continued, "The rest of the team is moving in to kill Steven, the leader. We will release the video of the fight's cruelty as soon as the leader is dead. The people will rise up to join us and the Fight will die forever!"

Trent looked up again and said, " So how do we kill the leader? And how can we possibly even get a chance to try?" His every word was dripping with sarcasm and I had to resist an urge to punch him myself.

I stood up and said, "That's where I come in. I get you that chance by 'coming back from the dead' and wanting to speak to the leader. To save its public image, the Fight will have to deal and let the event become publicized. I'll use Juro's laser to tag Steven and then whatever happens will happen". I finished my speech and turned it over to a stunned Juro.

Juro spoke up, "I hadn't thought of that, but it is a good plan and that's what we'll do. My 'laser' will send a rocket meant for a one-time use only to destroy one person or thing. It literally vaporizes his body to the atomic level and leaves no traces behind. It was quite common in the old days and I actually found this rocket hear." Like all intellectuals, Juro told us of his success story and finally ended with, "I souped it up some with more speed, and actually reduced the size. It will zip in exactly one minute after it was summoned with a portal it creates, a wormhole persay. Steven dies, we destroy the fights image, and we take over for the people. Any questions?"

Trent sat there and just radiated malevolence, but said nothing.

I finished, "Anybody who wants to have a few last words with your loved ones get to it". I looked at Salem as I said, "Or anyone who you would like to talk to". Salem winked at me and gestured out of the doors.

I strolled out of the door with Salem as a woman began to talk to Juro privately about the economic side of the attack. I looked into her smoky-emerald eyes which (I noticed seemed to change colors day-by-day) and asker her what should we do now. She suggested we go back to the gazebo, so we left to watch the autumn midday happenings.

While I was staring up at the sky, I saw a shadow drift across my vision to rain pellets down the opening.

Miraculously, none of them hit the walls, and instead they came down next to us.

BOOOM, BOOOM, BOOOM. The grounded exploded around us as I scooped up Salem and charged out the door. Blast doors that hadn't seen any action in centuries slid shut behind us to block off the view of my picture haven doused in fire. I spun Salem around and checked her for injuries while she did the same for me.

We ran into the cafeteria hall and saw Juro and the rest of our teams. "We're moving now", I yelled. I saw everyone else agreed with me so we went to grab our equipment and then we went to battle.

Ch. 11 Flighters Down

I still remember running up the stairs to discover the same building I had been using for months on end. We had been hiding right beneath one of the major Fight strongholds. I still can't believe it. I remembered the adrenaline racing through me as we fought the guards in the building and seized control of the building.

I remember crying as I held Cap in my hands as the blood left his body and I knew I was losing yet another member of my family.

I remember watching Salem and Big G sail into the sky with their teams and much later I remember watching the Fighters fall out of the sky with smoke billowing around them to cover their entire frames. I remember the two teams returning with ash covering them entirely and the grim masks of horror covering their shattered memories. The tears would come later I knew, for both guys and girls. An inner part of me registered that no soul could go through war without losing something.

I now sat in my room as the "Survivor", one who came back from a fight with Chinos. The Fight was angry with me, but they had to save their public image, just as I had predicted, thanks to my highly publicized return. My "body" had turned up so successfully that they could not connect me to the recent Resistance uprising. That did not stop them from searching me though, but they did not know the pen for what it was.

It was an odd world we lived in, with plentiful technology and civilization, alongside ruin and radiation and the people with the most influence and intellect still couldn't recognize a pen for what it really was. I laughed in my head at their stupidity but steeled myself for my meeting with destiny. The call would come eventually, but until it did I would think of my love and go to sleep with a smile in my heart.

Ch. 12 Destiny

"Nick, wake up". I realized I had fallen asleep and I opened my eyes to see Nancy staring down at me. She said, "Nick, our leader wants to see you. Follow me". I followed her out into this strange new building they had moved me to in the dead of night. It was made of a dark green stone that I did not recognize. As I was going out into the hall, my knuckle rubbed against the doorframe and received a small cut for my mistake.

I gazed askance at Nancy and she said, "New base, a resistance force took out the one we were staying in, but don't worry. We have a plan to fix it all". Her stone-cold tone caught me in my tracks.

"What is this resistance?" I asked.

She looked at me and said, "Just some pockets of people that don't agree with a little television or something along those lines".

She stepped up to me and suddenly gave me a quick peck on the lips. I had enough time to think; WOW, before we were passionately kissing and then I broke away, Salem's face flashing in my mind.

"What was THAT for?" I practically yelled, even as my mind replayed the scene and saw it as pleasant.

She said, "Sorry, I just didn't imagine how much it would hurt to lose you". I saw a veil of tears glimmering in here eyes. This was not what I wanted; I had always just been teasing Nancy. I had never even imagined she had feelings for me, especially not this strong.

Just like a sudden snap of a pair of fingers, I saw where my path could be headed. One path could give me the leadership of the Fight and the other could give me leadership of the Resistance. I just needed to play it cool.

"Nancy", I said, "we need to keep on going, and don't worry, you might never see me again, but you'll always be in my mind", I winked and watched the blush spread across her face like wildfire.

We continued down the hall through a succession of green doors that stuck out in my mind as a distorting image of puke. We finally came to a brilliant, flaming green door. She told me that this door could withstand a nuke blast from outside and from the looks of it, I believed her. She threw the doors wide open and was about to close it when I asked her to leave it open.

She got her suspicious look again so I quickly leaned in to kiss her and told her that I just wanted some fresh air. All the time I was watching her eyes, so I saw her suspicion fade away, and I knew that she let it go. I went in but she hung back and said, "He wants to speak to you alone. Be careful, he's a dangerous man".

She walked away and I turned around to find a room even bigger than the shelter's cafeteria hall.

A tan-skinned Hispanic man sat in a chair reading: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I walked up to him, where he looked up at me, and then lay his book shut, but not before marking his page.

"So you are the famed Nick Dross". His voice slithered over me like murky water running over stones to trickle into a great river. He picked up a pencil and wrote a mark next to my name. "You are supposed to be dead. You're not. What happened?"

"I was falling into the pit and hurt myself, but the part of the bridge I landed on collapsed and I fell onto a girder below. When I woke up, I crawled to the end and got off the bridge. I spent a few days on the street and finally found my way back home sire…"

He looked at me with lizard-like eyes and said, "I don't believe you, but I have a deal for you. Go back to wherever you came from and give them this." He pointed at a bomb.

My head pounded as I realized it was crunch time. Kill Steven or keep him alive and win his gratitude. I made my decision.

"You're right, I am lying, but before I go, can I write a letter to Nancy?"

"Of course", he said.

I brought out my pen and activated its laser. I loved Salem and the Resistance and knew that the Fight had to die. I wrote for exactly a minute without looking up, so when I finally did look up, I only had time to see his lizard-like eyes open in surprise as he vanished. I walked to his desk and picked up the book he had been reading. A piece of paper fell out and landed in my hand. It said- Don't trust Nick, he's not what he seems, he was with the Resistance. All is well. It was signed –Trent.

Well that was one loose end taken care of It explained why Trent had been trying so hard to stop our attack. I would just tell Juro as soon as I gave my note to Nancy. I read my note in my head: Nancy, my darling, I have to go out to fight the Resistance. Steven died of shock and is now resting in peace. He left me in charge. I will see you as soon as I return. Goodbye. –Yours truly, Nick.

It was time to go. I walked out of the door and back to my room where I slid my bed over to the wall and opened the trapdoor that I knew was there. It is time to follow the tunnels I had memorized to the sewer systems in order to find the Resistance. The fireworks would be starting as soon as I got there. With Steven dead the show was on.

Ch. 13 Showtime

I climbed out of the tunnels after a grueling trip to find Juro waiting on the other end. He said, "I didn't think you were going to make it, is Steven dead?"

I nodded and he said, "Then it is time. Follow me and watch the fireworks explode." I followed him down the tunnels up a staircase and to an elevator. We took the elevator to the very top where the judges of the Fight would have once stood. The same building I had lived in for the past months was now the home of the Resistance Headquarters. Juro pointed at a screen and turned the volume up. A countdown appeared from 5,4,3,2,1 and then his video started playing.

Juro and his council stood in a circle with a white background behind them. Video Juro stood up and said, "People of Earth, the Fight has been fooling you with smoke and mirrors. They have been hiding their true operations behind this cover up. Killing should not be praised, only despised, but the Fight has turned into a new form of worship. Don't listen to them anymore. Their tyranny will not be around anymore because Steven Faultfall is dead! Watch this clip of their operations". A clip followed showing the starving people climbing into the pit, the Flighters, and the fight's slaves preparing the arenas, as well as another clip showing the branding of a slave with the slave brand floating off the slave's brand to form a question mark. It then showed the cruelty of the overlords whipping their slaves to get them to work. The camera then panned down the faces of cheering crowds to show the animal delight etched into their mouths. The video ended with the United States Government building in Washington D.C. being marched on by unmistakable Fight robots. Video Juro spoke up again, "Our government now is just a façade. The Fight controls us, and it is time to end." The screen faded to black.

I looked out the window, counted to 10, and watched as the chaos started.

Ch. 14 Wrap up

The fires rages across the surface of the world as the people of Earth rose up against the Fight. We were all Americans now because of the Fight, our cultures still made us up individually, but our unity was made out of justified retribution, forging each culture into one people. It had unified us as Americans against our greatest enemy. All Americans stood up and went after Fight buildings to seize control. The Fight was overwhelmed and it's dominance ground to a halt. Everyone just became free like that same snap of the fingers that I had heard. Freedom works like that sometimes. We all fought together this day. 100% resistance.

I was watching the news the whole time, so that's how I know that the Fight was falling apart. I looked out the window and saw what was happening on TV headed our way.

I ran out to join the people and we spent the afternoon razing most of the Fight buildings. We were almost done when the impossible happened. Flighters flew into town and dropped deployable TV screens across the faces of buildings (which must have been happening in every major city at that moment). One landed in a pool of radiation and produced a sickly glow. Steven's ugly face showed up on screen next to a live image showing it indeed happening all over the world.

"People of Earth, your savior is here! Do not listen to those cretins, they lie to you. Thanks to doctored images and false promises. Return to your normal lives and this whole affair will be over. Our agents will rebuild and your favorite TV show will return! Thank you my friends."

I could see then why the people listened to him. He had a certain charm when he wanted it. He could be compared to a lizard, patient when need be, but read to strike at any time. He could place anyone in a trance with his cold, reptilian nature.

My blood pumped in my head and I struggled to win my way to the door of the building and back out into the streets. I wanted to go back to the Resistance's HQ, but the people ganged up on me and handed me over to the robots.

They marched me down the street to the Fight's actual headquarters. They took me through the doors of a large, grim building built like a castle in the middle of Central Park.

There Steven stood in front of me. I spit in his face. He kicked me in the stomach and I slumped to the floor. The game was over, the Fight had won.

Ch. 15 Imprisonment

I woke in the morning in the same spot to find Nancy looming over me with thunderclouds in her eyes. My ribs ached and my head throbbed from all the action yesterday.

That was nothing compared to the way Nancy leaped at me. She rolled me over and yelled at the top of her lungs, "You traitor! I… trusted you, and you almost cost me everything. If it weren't for me, you would already be dead". She raked her nails across my face, leaving nasty gashes. I pushed her off of me and nursed my wounds.

I whispered, "How did he survive?"

Steven stepped out of the shadows and said, "That deatomizer was planted by my agent. Do you even REALIZE how close you came to costing me everything? The people were going to turn on me eventually, but thanks to you, I found the Resistance and rooted it out, but you just about blew it all by making the people rise up. It will cost a fortune to repair everything. The Resistance is gone…" His last words were emphasized by the sound of gunfire as Juro's Council was walked in and executed before my eyes. He stared malice into my eyes and spoke with a deadly cold tone, "It's over Nick; the Resistance is dead. It's time to return that favor for what you tried to do to me."

He put a gun to my temple and pulled the trigger….


End file.
